Is the Antiproteinuric Effect of Cyclosporine A Independent of Its Immunosuppressive Function in T Cells?

The antiproteinuric effect of cyclosporine A(CsA) has been believed to result from its immunosuppressive effect on the transcription factor NFAT in T cells. However, current evidences supporting this hypothesis are missing. A recent study showed that CsA has a direct antiproteinuric effect on podocy...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bin Zhang, Wei Shi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2012-01-01
Series:International Journal of Nephrology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/809456
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The antiproteinuric effect of cyclosporine A(CsA) has been believed to result from its immunosuppressive effect on the transcription factor NFAT in T cells. However, current evidences supporting this hypothesis are missing. A recent study showed that CsA has a direct antiproteinuric effect on podocytes, suggesting a novel non-immunosuppressive mechanism for CsA's antiproteinuric effect. Conditional NFATc1 activation in podoyctes per se is sufficient to induce proteinuria in mice, indicating that NFAT activation in podocytes is a critical pathogenic molecular event leading to podocyte injury and proteinuria. Meanwhile, evidence showed that TRPC6-mediated Ca2+ influx stimulates NFAT-dependent TRPC6 expression. Altogether, these advances in podocyte research indicate that calcineurin-NFAT signal or calcineurin-synaptopodin axis has a direct proteinuric effect on podocytes which raises the possibility of developing specific antiproteinuric drugs that lack the unwanted effects of calcineurin or NFAT inhibition.
ISSN:2090-214X
2090-2158